Seymour-Johnson and F-15E (Strike Eagle) info

[Guest 89 Ride]

Originally posted by corra0c8:

Anybody know what the syllabus for strike-fighter WSO training looks like ?

Once you get to Pensacola, you'll go to API, then either VT-4 or VT-10 for some rides in the T-6 then some rides in the T-1 then to VT-86 to fly the T-39, a Sabreliner with an APG-66N (read watered down viper radar) to learn about low level and radar work and then Air to Air intercepts. Whole program can take any where from a year to 18 months. The differing times to train is a product of Navy training mentality. The AF sees training as something that has a definable beginning and end. In AF training you all get on the bus at once, take a few laps around the training track and cross the finish line together. The Navy is like throwing a huge box of rubber duckies down the Colorado River. Some make it to the finish line at different times, others get caught up in rapids and others get eaten by snapping turtles. The Navy calls it "the big boy program". You'll be training with students from the Navy, Marines, German Air Force, Italians, Saudis, Singapore students and a few others.

[Guest FighterFlyer]

Hey guys, I'm in IFF right now and headed to Seymour-Johnson to start F-15E FTU on the 15th of March. I wanted to start a thread for anybody that might be headed to Goldsboro to get advice on the FTU, the base, the community, etc.

1) What should we do to prepare?

2) What can we expect?

3) Any suggestions on where to live? Is anybody looking for a roommate?

4) What are the best places near Goldsboro to go to have a good time?

5) Any big factors contributing to success/failure at FTU?

To anybody in this community (including fellow newbies) thanks for your help and I look forward to meeting you.

FighterFlyer

[Toro]

Originally posted by FighterFlyer:

What should we do to prepare?

Just get all your personal life in order and enjoy your time off between IFF and the FTU. It's not like UPT where you can sit around for a year on casual status and study the Dash 1. If you have a lot of free time, the desire to study, and access to a government computer, you can access the 4th Training Squadron for the academic workbooks that you'll be studying as well as the inflight guide and local standards. I PM'd you the link - if anybody else is interested, send me a PM and I'll forward it to you. Again - you can ONLY access it from a military computer.

What can we expect?

It's going to be tough - definitely tougher than UPT. Your fourth ride will be 'crew solo' (with a student WSO) and your sixth ride will be a Form 8 checkride. By the time you leave, you will be qualified in Low Altitude Step Down Training to 500 feet, NVG Qualified, and be qualified in diving, low altitude, and laser guide bomb delivery. In roughly six months, you'll get about 50 sorties, 30 sims, and have over 170 hours of academics.

Any suggestions on where to live? Is anybody looking for a roommate?

A few married guys live on base. All the single guys live off base - most have roomates. As far as where, there isn't any particular place that's popular to live. There are lots of nice housing communities throughout the town.

What are the best places near Goldsboro to go to have a good time?

You're really not going to find anything exciting in town. Raleigh and Duke are an hour to the northwest - lots of culture and nightlife, and obviously college sports. You've also got Greenville and ECU about an hour to the northeast - plenty of college excitement. If you're up for a further drive, Myrtle Beach and Wilmington are a couple hours to the south. For a weekend trip, Virginia is only about three hours away.

Any big factors contributing to success/failure at FTU?

Attitude. It's a lot like UPT - I've seen guys who were good sticks get kicked around like nobody's business because they thought they were king $hit. I've also seen dudes who were consistently behind the power curve, but they gave 110% to try to get themselves back up to speed. The instructors recognize and respect that, and if you're putting in the extra effort, we will too.

[R-Dub]

There's always a lot of talk about the drops of -15Es revolving around the RTU class schedule, which begs the question...what are the typical start times (months of the year) for the classes?

[Toro]

There are two FTU squadrons, each puts through two classes a year and they're spaced out between the separate squadrons so that a class starts every three months. Right now the average (and max) size of each class is 24, but only half of those are pilots.

So when you do the math it makes sense - with a UPT class graduating about every month from four different bases, but an FTU classes starting every three months from only one base, there is a bit of funnel effect.

[Guest Rage]

so what are the hot times? (sts) and cold times? to be graduating from upt if you're looking for a strike eagle slot? knowing that you gotta go to both survivals, finish iff, and pcs what is that normally a 4-5 month span? if you're not in the hot time are you just SOL?

--RAGE--

[Guest Dirt Beater]

Dude, I wouldn't try to get that deep into it, sts. Sometimes they can send you through IFF, get you to the B-course pretty quickly, and then have you do land and water survival after the FTU. Most other times you'll knock out both survivals and then hit the B-course. Don't try to figure out the timing, you will lose. Besides, last time I checked you don't get to choose your graduation date, so just put the jet you want as your first choice and roll the bones. And I guess if you're not in a "hot time" then you are SOL for the Mudhen, and you have to go fly something shitty like the Viper/Hog/C model. Life's a biznatch like that.

Almost forgot...ENJJPT 0607 had 3 Mudhens and they graduated 17 Aug, FWIW. Remember you can always go check out the UPT bases' past newspapers and see what dudes got.

[ 08. November 2006, 10:33: Message edited by: NSFW ]

[Hacker]

Originally posted by FighterFlyer:

Hey guys, I'm in IFF right now and headed to Seymour-Johnson to start F-15E FTU

FWIW, there's no hyphen in the base's name -- Seymour A. Johnson is the guy's name that the base is named after.

[Guest Xtndr50boom]

I've got -15E's on Friday, so I guess I'll flip the switch and find out for myself.

Just don't tell your crew what you're doing. A former KSUU/current KWRI boom got the nickname of "Sidewinder" for his crew's boom interphone F-15E equipped antics in the desert

[Guest soflguy]

Thread revival...

Does anyone have any recommendations of good places to live? I've heard of this place Brookwood Downes, and it looks decent. Any thoughts on it or other places I should be looking into? Thanks

[Toro]

Thread revival...

Does anyone have any recommendations of good places to live? I've heard of this place Brookwood Downes, and it looks decent. Any thoughts on it or other places I should be looking into? Thanks

Maplewood, Raintree and Lanetree are all popular subdivision. With the exception of living downtown or right out the back gate (Goldsboro ghetto), most of the places around town are pretty nice. Currently I would say most people live towards the west side of town around the Lanetree area. There is another fairly new apartment complex to the north of town on either Warrick Circle/Caudill Ave.

Try looking at AHRN.com. It's a military-only listing of places to rent and lease by town. It shows lots of places in Goldsboro - I just used it to rent our place.

[R-Dub]

Here's a few questions I've thought of about the FTU:

- Are there a lot of direct support sorties in the syllabus at SJ versus pilot with an IP in the backseat?

- How many student "team" sorties are there in the syllabus where student pilots and WSOs are paired together to fly?

- Are there opportunities to sandbag sorties at the FTU in the event that there are direct support sorties?

- What's the ASD in the Strike Eagle? Is the intent of each sortie to try and maximize training by carrying full bags of gas and full internals (exception: maybe not on BFM/ACM training sorties; no externals due to likely combat jet in the event of an A/A engagement?)?

Thanks for any insights.

[Toro]

- Are there a lot of direct support sorties in the syllabus at SJ versus pilot with an IP in the backseat?

No, the only time you would have a true direct support is if you had a student pilot not crewed with a student WSO or vice versa. Then you'd have (as an example), IP with student WSO in his backseat and his wingman would be a CT crew. The only sortie that 'requires' direct support is ACM. For ACT, we generally put a 2-ship of students against another 2-ship of students and they take turns on blue hacks.

- How many student "team" sorties are there in the syllabus where student pilots and WSOs are paired together to fly?

Quite a lot. I'd have to look at the syllabus to be sure, but off the top of my nugget I recall one transition, five BFM (out of a total eight), zero ACM, zero ACT, three surface attack (one of which is TST), one SAT, and I believe two night (one of which is TST). They call it 'crew solo'.

- Are there opportunities to sandbag sorties at the FTU in the event that there are direct support sorties?

Negative. "Unfair advantage..bla...bla". If you're casual status you might get a chance, but not students.

- What's the ASD in the Strike Eagle? Is the intent of each sortie to try and maximize training by carrying full bags of gas and full internals (exception: maybe not on BFM/ACM training sorties; no externals due to likely combat jet in the event of an A/A engagement?)?

For the most part, we don't concern ourselves with ASD. Towards the end of the FY, we may try to extend or shorten sorties a little, but the training is more important. We will generally load up the jets with bags towards the end of A/A (ACT to allow AB commits) and into surface attack to fly longer A/G sorties. We don't load up bags during the BFM/ACM phase because we can't fight until they're dry.

[Guest MegaPieBoy]

I've been curious about how much different it is for pilots flying the two different F-15 models, and I couldn't find a thread directly related to the topic. How often do strike eagles perform the air to air mission(or is that stricly for C models?), how different are the avionics, is flying with a WSO a positive element for strike eagles, how different is the ops tempo/deployment/combat between the two models, any insight between how different it is flying an air to air fighter compared to a multi-role strike fighter, personal opinions from actual F15 pilots about the other model, and anything else related to differences(or similarities) between the mission and lifestyle.

[Guest peanut]

I've been curious about how much different it is for pilots flying the two different F-15 models, and I couldn't find a thread directly related to the topic. How often do strike eagles perform the air to air mission(or is that stricly for C models?), how different are the avionics, is flying with a WSO a positive element for strike eagles, how different is the ops tempo/deployment/combat between the two models, any insight between how different it is flying an air to air fighter compared to a multi-role strike fighter, personal opinions from actual F15 pilots about the other model, and anything else related to differences(or similarities) between the mission and lifestyle.

I'm just a lowly sensor course guy right now, so I can't actually answer your question exactly, but the missions are vastly different from what I've learned in my few months here at Seymour. Strike Eagle guys do a lot more work since we're constantly training for the vast amount of roles we do.

In all honesty, if a strike eagle has to actually do any air-to-air fighting, we've most likely really screwed up, or are doing a DCA role (something is still really screwed up). Our primary role is air-to-ground with the ability to fight our way in/out if needed. The WSO is very much a positive element to the jet, but not as much in the air-to-air role. In an air-to-air engagement, the pilot will perform most of the tasks that are required for BFM, while the WSO provides info in a "if needed" situation, for lack of a better term. Basically, when the pilot's looking out to not lose sight, we look inside and check for whatever parameters were set (floor, bingo, etc.), and vice versa. We also use with the systems in the back to provide more SA to the pilot when we are working for a kill BVR. Some of the other "old hats" on here can probably clarify that a little better than I, but that's the most basic way of saying what we do in an air-to-air engagement. Air-to-ground is a different story, roles seem to be almost totally flipped, as in the pilot only flies, while the WSO does everything else, in a sense. Experienced guys can elaborate more and correct my errors.

I've never actually been on an A/G flight, but can say after helping out in a CAS exercise, that it is absolutely amazing what a crew could do. Of course, the C model dudes, don't do this, so it is comparing apples to oranges, but we're pretty damn good at it, and we apparently haven't been doing it very long from what some of our instructors have said. I saw Hawgs, Fighting Falcons, Strike Eagles, and Hornets while out there, and the Strike Eagles were second only to the Hawgs. There are a lot more requests for CAS type missions nowadays and with the changing of the way we fight our wars, the Strike Eagle is definitely flexing it's muscles. Everybody wants it in the theatre because of the amount of different roles it can do and the amount of SA each individual jet can provide to the fight. Again, the more experienced guys can elaborate.

My opinion, if you couldn't tell from my earlier rips on the Chucks, is that the Strike Eagle is a much better airframe, at least for the mission. I can't say anything about community, since I only know a few C model dudes, they're pretty good dudes, so I figure our communities are fairly equal as far as how we interact amongst our kind. As far as what it's like flying with a WSO, I hope it's good, for my sake, or I really suck. WSOs can be lifesavers or limfacs. If we do our job well, the crew can totally kick some ass. If we suck, so can the pilot, because we can soak up every bit of his SA while we've lost ours. Hope this helps.

edited for lack of SA as quoted by fury in next post.

Edited May 21, 2009 by peanut

[Toro]

I've been curious about how much different it is for pilots flying the two different F-15 models, and I couldn't find a thread directly related to the topic.

Try harder next time. I moved it for you.

How often do strike eagles perform the air to air mission(or is that stricly for C models?)

The FTU syllabus is about a 50/50 split between Air-to-Air and Air-to-Ground. Operationally, it depends on the current training emphasis, but it favored A/G several years back.

how different are the avionics

Very different. Different radars, different displays, different systems (primarily the addition of A/G systems for the Strike Eagle).

is flying with a WSO a positive element for strike eagles

Yes. They are the reason we can do our mission as effectively as we do. Peanut's description is pretty accurate and there's some additional info earlier in this thread.

how different is the ops tempo/deployment/combat between the two models

Ops Tempos totally depend on where you are. I can't speak for the C models, but the E model guys generally stay busy and fly their asses off.

Deployments as far as I know stay aligned with the AEF cycles for the most part, they just go different places and do different things.

Combat for the F-15Es is dropping bombs in bad guy land as we speak. F-15Cs are primarily doing homeland defense or other defense missions (lots of CAPping and intercepts, no shooting).

any insight between how different it is flying an air to air fighter compared to a multi-role strike fighter

It's not different, we just have an additional mission. We can do all of the C model missions in addition to our own. They are more proficient at the A/A mission because it's all they do, and their jet is better suited for flying BFM because it's lighter than ours (due to our extra avionics and fuel), but we do the same A/A missions.

personal opinions from actual F15 pilots about the other model, and anything else related to differences(or similarities) between the mission and lifestyle.

Not really a relevant question to ask. Never ask a pilot about the lifestyle of another aircraft because he can only provide hearsay.

In all honesty, if a strike eagle has to actually do any air-to-air fighting, we've most likely really screwed up, or are doing a DCA role (something is still really screwed up).

Everything else you said was pretty accurate, but that sentence is not correct. If we are in a visual fight we have probably screwed up, but we can and should utilized for DCA/Sweep/Escort roles. For the most part we have the same A/A capabilities as the C model and we train to all the same missions. If the C models are in town, they should be doing DCA, but if they aren't around or there aren't enough of them, we are an absolutely viable substitute. I flew DCA in ONW and I've flown it in multiple large force exercises. As long as your aircrew are proficient, we can handle the fight just as well as the C models.

[Guest momof3]

Our family will be moving to Seymour Johnson this summer and I've got a couple of different questions. I've searched a lot on this website and I can't find exactly the answers I'm looking for and any help/guidance would be greatly appreciated!

First - what is the medical care like in the area? Are Tricare Prime members expected to be seen by doctors on base? We have children with different health issues (asthma, immune deficiency, etc). Are there a lot of specialists in Goldsboro or would we be referred to Raleigh? If I were to have a baby there, would I be allowed to be seen by a doctor off base? (I have cesareans so that is of concern for me)

Second - I've heard that the housing on base has been remodeled recently. Is it difficult to get into a new home on base? How are the homes for officers? Are there cockroaches? I know that sounds like a funny question, but when you have a kid with asthma you have to worry about that kind of thing.

Third - Does anyone have their kids enrolled at Pathway Christian Academy and if so, what do you think about it? In the research I've done, it seems that Rosewood and Northwest seem to be the most decent public schools. Does anyone have any good info on those schools? What are the best areas off base to live?

Sorry for all the questions, but any info would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks!

[Hacker]

SJ doesn't have a hospital proper (only a clinic), so any significant medical care will get farmed out to the hospital there in Goldsboro. Special care (like prenatal care and c-sections) can get farmed out to better facilities up in Wilson or Greenville, or even Raleigh/Durham.

[nlb8]

My wife and I are heading to Seymour Johnson this winter and I'm looking for some insight into housing. My wife is planning on working in Raleigh so we're looking for somewhere in between Raleigh and Goldsboro with Clayton seeming like an obvious choice based upon my limited knowledge of the area. Does anyone have any info on Clayton, i.e. where to look/where to avoid and are there any other areas that we should look into?